Florida’s New TCPA Law Effective July 1

This past April, the Florida legislature passed an amendment to Florida’s version of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, CS/SB 1120. Two days before the amendment’s effective date of July 1, 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the amendment into law, giving companies little time to prepare.

Consumer Fraud Alert – Tips for avoiding VA home loan scams

Many servicemembers, veterans, and military spouses have been receiving fraudulent calls and mailers from companies who claim to be affiliated with the government, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), or their home loan servicer. These calls or mailers often try to sway you to refinance your home, agree to a loan modification, or pay your loan via purchased money orders. They may also try to convince you that your home is facing foreclosure.

Redemption?: Navient Walks Away With ATDS Win After All

You’ll recall that Navient is being sued by a pro per for allegedly using an ATDS to call him without consent. The calls at issue were made to collect on government-backed debt, and the court held that the conduct might be illegal–although the statute plainly permitted it at the time. I have called this result “madness“–because that is precisely what it is. (Notably another court has rejected the application of the TCPA to this precise category of calls made by this precise Defendant because TCPAWorld.)

CFPB Blogs About Buy Now Pay Later

On July 6, the CFPB posted a blog titled, “Should you buy now and pay later?” describing how buy now pay later (BNPL) deferred payment options work, and the benefits and risks that come with BNPL. Generally, if a consumer selects the BNPL option at an online checkout, “the purchase is . . . split into a payment schedule – typically four fixed payments made bi-weekly or monthly until the balance is paid in full.” The CFPB points out that transaction approval takes minutes, with no interest, finance charges, or hard credit inquiries.

Trends in Reported Assistance on Consumers’ Credit Records

This post is the second in a series documenting trends in consumer credit outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last August, we published a report on early trends in consumer credit outcomes through June 2020, which found largely positive trends in those outcomes despite widespread economic hardship due to the pandemic.

Senators Warren, Smith and Markey urge Biden to extend federal student loan pause to March 31, 2022

Since March 27, 2020, federal student loan interest rates have been set to 0% and payments have been paused, giving borrowers roughly $72 billion in student loan interest relief and helping many make ends meet during the pandemic. But payments are set to resume on Oct. 1, 2021.

ProVest and Vertican Technologies Partner on Q-LawE Software Integration

TAMPA, Fla. – July 13, 2021 – ProVest, an industry leader in serving legal process, announced that it is now fully integrated with Vertican’s Q-LawE platform. Vertican’s software offers many benefits, namely time savings and human data entry error elimination. “While we pride ourselves on building strong relationships, we know our clients want to save time and money, making the entire process – from service to filing – more efficient and economical,” said ProVest CEO James Ward. “Vertican Technologies has a deep understanding of the credit collections industry. This integrated software solution will help our current and future clients boost file throughput and help ensure accuracy.”

United States: CFPB Highlights Findings From Supervisory Examinations

The CFPB highlighted findings from supervisory examinations completed in 2020. The examinations covered, among other things, (i) auto servicing, (ii) consumer reporting, (iii) debt collection, (iv) fair lending, (v) mortgage servicing and (iv) student loan servicing.

DC makes moves to combat ‘aggressive debt collection’ after COVID protections expire

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Attorney General Karl Racine are putting forward legislation to protect District consumers against “unfair and abusive debt collection practices.” Mendelson introduced the bill Monday, which was written in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General. According to a release, the legislation would “modernize the District’s outdated debt collection law, which was written in 1971 and does not currently cover most types of consumer debt, including medical debt and credit card debt.”

CFPB Takes Action Against Fintech Company GreenSky for Enabling Merchants to Secure Loans for Consumers Without Their Authorization

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against GreenSky, LLC for enabling contractors and other merchants to take out loans on behalf of thousands of consumers who did not request or authorize them. The CFPB issued a consent order against GreenSky requiring the company to refund or cancel up to $9 million in loans for customers harmed by its illegal conduct, pay a $2.5 million civil penalty, and implement new procedures to prevent future fraudulent loans.

FTC Charges Two Florida-based Companies with Helping Student Debt Relief Scammers

Two Florida companies and their CEO will be permanently barred from offering payment-processing services to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that they aided a criminal student debt relief scam that bilked $62 million from thousands of students and their families.

White House Tells CFPB to Hit the Accelerator on Bank Data-Share Rules

Following the issuance of a new executive order by President Biden, Section 1033 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act may finally be implemented. Section 1033 — which calls for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue regulations detailing financial data access and sharing — has been on hold for as long as the CFPB (also created by Dodd-Frank) has existed.

Kansas man skips sentencing for debt selling scam

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge issued an arrest warrant Thursday for a Kansas man who skipped his sentencing for a debt selling scam that involved millions of dollars. Joel Tucker, of Prairie Village, pleaded guilty last year to criminal counts of transporting stolen money, bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion. His attorneys said Thursday that Tucker was in Colorado dealing with a critical family situation, The Kansas City Star reported. U.S. District Court Judge Roseann Ketchmark issued the arrest warrant and set a new sentencing hearing for Tuesday.

Americans Are Reaching for Their Credit Cards Again and Debt Is Climbing

Americans borrowed a lot more money in May, according to new data from the Federal Reserve's Consumer Credit Report released in July. There was a 10% increase in credit use on a seasonally adjusted annual basis in May 2021. This is the biggest increase since 2016, when consumer credit saw a seasonally adjusted annual increase of 6.9%.

Biden has now canceled $3B in student loans, broad debt forgiveness still waits

The Biden administration is wiping out another tens of millions of dollars in student loan debt, affecting borrowers who were deceived by schools that are now out of business. With this new debt forgiveness, the Department of Education has now canceled at least $3 billion in student loans since the beginning of the year. Borrowers have been given more room in their budgets to save, invest or get a grip on their other debts. Meanwhile, millions of Americans continue to wait for word on whether President Joe Biden will provide widespread student loan forgiveness. Members of Congress who want him to kill $50,000 in federal loans per person aren't letting it go.

Department of Education Approves Borrower Defense Claims Related to Three Additional Institutions

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced today the approval of over 1,800 borrower defense to repayment (borrower defense) claims for borrowers who attended three institutions: Westwood College, Marinello Schools of Beauty and the Court Reporting Institute. This is the first time the Department has announced approved borrower defense claims for students who attended institutions besides Corinthian Colleges, ITT Technical Institute, and American Career Institute since 2017.

State Regulators Urge Department of Education to Rescind Preemption Policies

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and North American Collection Agency Regulatory Association (NACARA) are seeking the return of states’ authority to regulate federal student loan servicers and debt collectors.

Wells Fargo scraps personal lines of credit

In a statement to FOX Business, the bank confirmed the move, first reported by CNBC. "As we simplify our product offerings, we made the decision last year to no longer offer personal lines of credit as we feel we can better meet the borrowing needs of our customers through credit card and personal loan products. We realize change can be inconvenient, especially when customer credit may be impacted. We are providing a 60-day notice period with a series of reminders before closure, and are committed to helping each customer find a credit solution that fits their needs" according to a company spokesperson.

9 million student loan borrowers will soon be getting a new servicer. Here’s why

Washington (CNN)About 9 million people with federal student loans will start getting their bills from a new agency after one of the government's biggest servicers said Thursday that it will end its contract with the Department of Education in December. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), which is better known as FedLoan -- its arm that handles federal student debts -- has been contracted by the government to collect payments for the past 12 years. It's currently one of four main servicers that the Department of Education uses, processing more than $400 billion in student loans, or roughly a quarter of the total federal student debt portfolio.

Biden has canceled $1.5 billion in student debt for victims of for-profit school fraud

Washington (CNN)The Department of Education has canceled a total of $1.5 billion in student loan debt for nearly 92,000 students, who were victims of for-profit college fraud, since President Joe Biden took office. The current administration has been taking steps to address the backlog of more than 100,000 forgiveness claims left over from the Trump administration. In its latest move, the Department of Education said Friday that it is canceling about $55.6 million, approving claims from 1,800 borrowers who attended either the now-defunct Westwood College, Marinello Schools of Beauty or the Court Reporting Institute.

Rental assistance may help you and your tenants get through the pandemic

The financial strain brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has hit some groups harder than others. According to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), over half of renters who work in hard-hit industries that saw closures and cut-backs live in single-family and small multifamily rentals . Three-quarters of these rental properties are owned by individual “mom and pop” investors – folks with their own bills to pay.

U.S. Consumer Borrowing Jumped by Most on Record in May

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer credit surged in May by the most on record, reflecting a jump in non-revolving loans that underscores solid household spending.

CFPB and Georgia AG Settle With Debt-Relief Company

On June 29, the CFPB and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office settled with a debt-relief and credit-repair company and its owners for allegedly deceiving consumers into hiring the company to lower or eliminate credit-card debts and improve consumers’ credit scores.  The complaint alleges that the plaintiffs’ use of telemarketing and direct mail violated the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Act, and Georgia’s Fair Business Practices Act by, among other things, falsely claiming that:

Colorado Privacy Act Signed Into Law

On July 7, 2021, Colorado officially became the third state to pass broad consumer privacy legislation when Governor Jared Polis signed the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) into law. The Colorado legislature previously passed the CPA on June 8. The CPA will go into effect on July 1, 2023.

The SEC’s Continued Focus on Cybersecurity Enforcement

On June 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a $490,000 settlement with the real estate services provider First American Financial Corporation (First American) for violations of disclosure controls and procedures related to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Notably, the SEC’s case against First American did not specifically focus on a cyberattack or allege an underlying securities fraud charge, as many of its past cybersecurity enforcement actions have.

ACA Outlines Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Comments to Regulatory Agencies

Artificial intelligence-based technologies can help ACA International members and other financial services providers better understand their customers’ preferences and adapt their communications approaches, Vice President and Senior Counsel of Federal Advocacy Leah Dempsey said in recent comments on five federal agencies’ request for information (RFI) on artificial intelligence .

Visa’s Crypto-Backed Cards Count $1 Billion In Spending

Visa said Wednesday that its cryptocurrency-backed credit card is growing in popularity. The company’s chief financial officer told CNBC today that users of the card had spent more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency globally on goods and services in the first six months of the year.

Industry groups challenge Nevada’s new medical debt collection law

On June 25, a group of collection agencies, law firms, and industry associations filed a lawsuit against the Nevada State Commissioner requesting the Court declare invalid Nevada Senate Bill 248, which regulates medical debt collection. The new law took effect on July 1, 2021. Nevada enacted the new law last month.

CFPB Issues Summer 2020 Supervisory Highlights

On June 29, the CFPB released its summer 2021 Supervisory Highlights. The findings of the report, which cover examinations that generally were completed between January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, are issued to “help institutions and the general public better understand how the Bureau examines institutions for compliance with Federal consumer financial law.”

Current Mortgage Refinance Rates — July 8, 2021: Rates Fall for All Loans

The average 30-year mortgage refinance loan rate today is 3.248%, down 0.009% from yesterday's average of 3.257%. For each $100,000 refinanced at today's average rate, your monthly principal and interest payment would add up to $435. Total interest costs would be $56,635 per $100,000 in mortgage debt over the life of the refinance loan.

DFS Settles with Indirect Auto Lenders to Resolve Fair Lending Violations

On June 29, NYDFS announced that two New York-charted banks engaging in indirect auto lending will pay civil money penalties for violating New York’s fair lending law for engaging in practices that resulted in members of protected classes paying higher interest rates that were not based on creditworthiness.  In particular, NYDFS asserts that the practice of allowing “dealer markup” in setting retail interest rates resulted in statistically significant differences in pricing, disadvantaging Hispanic and African-American consumers, with differences ranging from 20 to 59 basis points.

July is Military Consumer Month

Federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Servicemember Affairs, are holding several events for consumers during Military Consumer Month.

Temporary Relief for Debt Collectors: 11th Circuit Withholds Hunstein Mandate

On June 14, 2021, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued an order withholding issuance of the mandate for its April 21, 2021, holding in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc.

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